The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion
Have you been spending hours trying to pass a level? Or maybe you are completely addicted to a newly bought game. Do you have a question about a game or would like to share something else? In the Weekly Discussion Thread, you can do it all!
Please don’t forget to use the spoiler tag as soon as you start talking about a storyline.
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Gave Valheim another shot.
The last couple times I've tried it I struggled picking up momentum and progressing in the game, as the initial tutorial seems to be missing a few key steps so I end up spinning my wheels not knowing what to do next.
This time I had Christmas break time to fuck around and find out. Pushed through the initial hurdles and actually made decent progress, including soloing the first boss. It's a solid game so far, but it could communicate its expectations a bit more clearly.
I picked up Monster Hunter World again last night after playing some Dark Souls Remastered and itching for more of that style combat. I forgot how much better it was than Rise, and I never got around to playing Iceborne. Having a lot of fun with the new stuff, and I think it'll be my default game this week.
I don't know what it was about Rise but something about it just didn't suit me. Out of the 3 MH games I've played (GU, World and Rise) Rise was by far the fastest I've dropped a MH game. World and Iceborne were excellent, my only two criticisms of Iceborne is having to use the clutch claw and doing Lance dirty. You need to commit a lot of skills to make Lance viable and then even with optimal play you're doing only average dps. Oh and and let's give late game monsters unblockable attacks so we could also remove the one thing that lance has over every other weapon, defense. So just a heads up if you're one of the rare lance players. Charge blade however, chefs kiss, by far my favorite archetype in Iceborne.
For me my issues with Rise are two-fold.
One, it's because it was designed for the Switch and based off the handheld version of the game, so they were working under stricter hardware limitations and could afford to sacrifice fidelity. This felt like a step backwards after we were spoiled by how detailed and vibrant World felt. The environments just felt more artificial and "gamey" where World felt like an actual place with real creatures interacting with each other in believable ways.
Two, it's because I don't much like the wire-bugs. They feel out of place in Monster Hunter because they're just a bit too OP and magical. I'm not a fan of the more fantastical elements MH has been introducing. I like the series being more grounded, and I felt World hit the balance nicely with the weapons and tools being fun and "anime" without being so over the top they break verisimilitude.
Both are minor complaints. Rise is still a great game and I did play it for a good while on the Switch, it's just not scratching the MH itch like World does.